Review of Prime Burger Bar

Prime Burger Bar

Rating:

Star3

Star

Star

Star

Star

You feeling lucky? When that lucky feeling strikes you may be tempted to hop in the car and drive to Elgin and pull a few slots at the Grand Victoria Casino. After a couple of hours of battling the one armed bandit you’ll probably garner an appetite and in need of an energy recharge. Assuming you haven’t lost your shirt this is a good time to check out Prime Burger Bar.

When I stepped into Prime Burger I gotta admit I was a little confused. The website advertises this sexy upscale place where you can get amazing burgers. The servers are dressed in tight hot pink pleather outfits, while they are tight, I don’t find pink pleather sexy nor upscale. Next confusing thing is that the place looks like a diner with red vinyl booths, tile floors, and surprisingly bright lighting. I open the menu and I see an attractive woman with a tag line “Get Some”. As I flip through the menu I see lots of pictures of sexy people but very few pictures of the actual food. I’m a red blooded guy and enjoy pictures of hot women as much as the next guy, but a picture of a woman in a short dress tells me nothing about what my burger is gonna look like.

Time get down to ordering to see if the food keeps sending mixed signals or if it’s on point. Instead of dessert last we order milkshakes with our meals so we have time to play a few slots before the drive home. Shakes come in two varieties “Unleaded” and “Leaded” which simply means with or without booze. The two “Unleaded” shakes we chose were the crème brulee and the chunky toasted marshmallow. Both shakes had very good flavor and delivered on the name but my minor gripe is that they seemed to have very little actual ice cream in them. I enjoyed the flavor but felt I was drinking flavored whip cream more than an actual milkshake.

The one appetizer chosen tonight was the crispy mac and cheese balls. These should have been good, really good in fact but they ended up being just ok. They were served luke warm and the inside instead of being hot and gooey was kinda warm and kinda gummy. Did they let it sit on the counter before they served me? Now here is where the experience changes for the better, way better. Time to try the prime burgers. If you don’t know less than two percent of all beef produced in the United States will earn the prime designation. The garlic parmesan burger had parmesan cheese (duh), garlic parmesan butter, batter fried tomatoes, mixed greens, roasted garlic mayo, and a parmesan crisp topped pretzel bun. First thing off the meat is fantastic! Juicy with an incredible mouth feel and then the explosion of garlic and parmesan made this burger one of the best I had ever tried! Next burger was the drunken bull which was also on a pretzel bun and was topped with onions braised in booze, bacon, and a boatload of gorganzola cheese. Every bite I closed my eyes and was in a state of bliss! Each bite of these burgers made me happy, really happy!

So does this review confuse you as much as it does me? This place could be off the charts amazing but seems to make some odd choices on the way to stardom. Simpe fixes would be to dim the lights and ditch the pink pleather outfits! But when it comes to the burgers I wouldn’t change a thing because these things were freakin’ awesome! Prices aren’t cheap but not outrageous either. Burgers with fries are about $12 which I think is fair for the quality you receive. Overall rating *** (good) out of *****.

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Zoran "Hungry Z" Sopcic is a local Chicagoland food critic, with an eye to the everyday person. His belief that the suburbs deserve notice in the Chicagoland food game has brought increased exposure to the suburban culinary scene. This exposure and commitment to both the city and suburbs earned him a place on the NBC5 Street Team in early 2008. With his passion for food and personable demeanor, Hungry Z has earned both local television and web based media appearances. In addition to HungryZ.com and NBC5streetteam.com, Hungry Z is also a regular contributor to the Around Town section of NBCChicago.com. So keep reading, tell your friends, and keep your eyes open, because you never know where you'll spot Hungry Z next! Contact @ hungryz@hungryz.com